About time! And you can also set up a "wait list" much like the que you set up in Netflix. Too bad they don't have it set up for iPad or for Apple TV but at least you can watch it on your Mac. Personally, the more they add to Xbox 360 the happier I get since it means I'm that much closer to getting rid of Dish Network. I'm almost there actually, between this and Hulu + and Apple TV, along with the iPad apps I use I pretty much can get all I want except for sports. And for that I can always go to a bar or a friends house, sports are more fun to watch in groups anyway right?

Thursday, May 24, 2012

"TiVO recently announced a new TV-side device that can stream shows right to your iPhone and iPad."

I suppose it's nice to be able to watch what you want around the house without having to wrestle with other family members for control of the TV, but the big problem I have with these restrictions is that you can't watch your shows while outside of your home. I can do this however with my Dish Network using the Sling Adapter, why can't other companies do something similar? What are your thoughts?

Thursday, October 27, 2011

"The DirecTV app for iPad got a significant bump in capabilities today by adding live streaming to giving you essentially a portable TV you can take to any room of your house."

Sucks that you have to be on the same network to utilize this, but a nice update and progress nonetheless. I guess this is cool if you don't want to buy another TV and want to watch your shows from the comfort of your bed. What will be cooler is when you will be able to stream from your DVR without having to use Sling to do it, like I have to do now on Dish.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

"Looking for a drop-dead simple solution for streaming media (photos, music, video) and accessing files from home on your smartphone or tablet? Or how about backing up your smartphone's recently taken photos and video? Well, Pogoplug's new $79 Pogoplug Mobile product offers to do just that."

There's definitely something very appealing about having access to all of your music, videos, and photos anywhere you go. I've solve this by by uploading every photo I've ever taken to Smugmug, every song I have to Amazon's Cloud Drive, and videos...well, I don't have a good solution for that yet. I can access them remotely via my Windows Home Server, but only when that works (the last time it didn't). This is rather appealing, especially given the $79 price point. What solution do you use for everywhere-you-go media access?

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

"When Apple announced iTunes Match at WWDC back in June, it was a little unclear whether the service would allow you to stream your music library to your iOS devices as opposed to storing it locally - allowing you to access your tracks without actually taking up any of your precious storage space."

It wasn't announced but it was always one option we were hoping for, and it appears Apple came through. This was all revealed when Apple released their iTunes 10.5 Beta 6.1 to developers yesterday. You can watch how it all works in this video from Insanely Great Mac. And it appears for your yearly price of $24.99 USD, you get to store approximately 250 GB of music (25,000 songs). That isn't a bad price at all. What are your thoughts?

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

"Rumors of a "Spotify-like" iTunes in the cloud have been going around for years before Apple finally pre-launched iCloud and the possibility to re-download previously purchased songs. Yet, while the feature is a good start, it still lacks the ability to stream music and because of that, isn't really what we hoped for."

Well now you can stream the latest Red Hot Chili Pepper album from iTunes, free of charge! You can only do it from desktop and its a one time only deal, but it's a start. It will be interesting to see how much of a success this is and what else iTunes and Apple have up their sleeves.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

"CNN is the first 24-hour news network to offer live streaming of both the flagship CNN channel and CNN Headline News to iPad and iPhone owners, and at CNN.com/video, via the TV Everywhere initiative."

If you don't know about the TV Everywhere initiative, you can read this article at Gigaom, but it boils down to having premium TV content available online as long as you can verify you have subscribed via third party sites, such as Dish Network or Comcast. I'm hoping eventually that you will be able to just subscribe directly to this premium content online instead of having to also have it set up on regular TV. I won't hold my breath, but I'm betting eventually it will get here, what are your thoughts?

Thursday, January 27, 2011

I watched it this afternoon, when the folks from Mac Power Users were talking about backup solutions. The audio was fine, however the video was a little shaky but not unwatchable by any means. Regardless, it gives you the ability to take part in some of the presentations going on at Macworld, just go to UStream.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

"Netflix on Monday excitedly announced a new streaming-only, DVD-less plan, and then, while staring down at the floor, quietly murmured something about a price hike for all other plans."

This was bound to happen as more and more people stream content from Netflix, and find no need to even order the physical disks. According to the Netflix Blog, you can get a streaming only plan for $7.99 USD. The other plans will increase by $1.00 USD, so if you had the one disk plan before, it will go up to $9.99 USD. I prefer the option to have at least one disk sent to me as not all the content Netflix offers is available to stream. Once that happens, I'm streaming only.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

"If there was any doubt that Netflix would begin moving toward a streaming-only offering, a quote resurfaced this morning from the company's quarterly report makes it all too clear that Netflix will embrace the "net" of its moniker. According to the report, Netflix has become predominantly streaming, with a majority of its users watching more content streamed online than on DVD."

The Netflix streaming capability is all over now, with options for PS3, Wii, Blu-Ray players and Xbox to name a few, so it appears inevitable that Netflix is going to go that route and abandon their mailing option. The key question is when exactly is this going to happen? It sounds like it will be sooner rather than later, with projections for offering a streaming only version of their service late in Q4. I think I would still stick with a combo plan, using the streaming as well as mailed DVDs, but that is only due to the fact they don't have everything available to stream. If they did, that is all I would use. What are your thoughts?

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

"Wal-mart is showing how it might make use of VUDU after purchasing the 1080p movie streaming house earlier this year, now that the two have teamed up with Disney to throw in a free digital copy of Toy Story 3 with each one purchased at the store on DVD or Blu-ray."

So as of yesterday, when you purchased the movie you got a download code to use on VUDU. Wal-Mart and VUDU say this is the future of content, but I wish they would head in another direction. I would actually prefer a digital copy that I could place on my portable device, much like I received when I purchased Blue Harvest, the Star Wars version of Family Guy. What are your thoughts, digital copy or streaming version via an online service?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

"Netflix chief Reed Hastings in comments on his company's latest results hinted that the firm may hasten plans for streaming-only US access. As long as results were as strong as expected, the CEO believed Netflix could have a disc-free option later in the fall. The Canadian debut of the strategy was very successful and also played a role, Hastings said."

I can take or leave this as I stream mostly now anyway. If they convert all the shows I currently have to order discs for then I would be happy. The streaming system they have works well on pretty much any device they have it tied to in my opinion. Netflix is one of those great values, if you only get the single disc program for roughly $9.00 USD per month, you still get unlimited streaming.

A welcome addition, and while at first glance you might be thinking what is the big deal? Isn't the Apple TV supposed to have Netflix on it? Yes, but this proves you can stream from your iOS device, so what is to prevent you from streaming Hulu Plus or any other service you have an app for to your TV? That is the real benefit. They have also added a feature allowing you to set individual text message sounds for users. I'm going to get some use out of that feature as well since my work pages come to my iPhone and I've been wanting to be able to differentiate them for some time now from my regular text messages. Have you read about any of the updates to iOS that you are going to find extremely useful?

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

"According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com has been pitching media companies on a streaming video subscription service that would compete with Netflix. Amazon has talked to NBC, Time Warner and Viacom about a service that would work on the Web, on mobile devices, and on Xbox 360 consoles."

If this is true (and I think it probably is), then the digital distribution field is about to get a lot more interesting. I've been hoping for some competition for Netflix, which pretty much rules the roost when it comes to streaming video. I'm a firm believer that more competition is always good for the consumer. It's also possible we'll see a streaming video solution from Apple, maybe even at today's event. It looks to be an exciting few months for fans of streaming video. Anybody else excited about this possibility?

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

"Looks like Roku's going aggressive on price with its lineup of streamers in response to Sony's new $130 Netbox streamer, the upcoming Google TV launch, and rumors that we'll see that rumored $99 iOS-based Apple TV arrive on Wednesday."

The standard def box went down to $59.00 USD, the regular HD is $69.00 USD and the HD-XR box is at $99.00 USD, all dropping in price from $20-$30.00 USD. This is getting to the point to have one just for the UFC they offer, but if they would throw in some NFL RedZone, I'd buy it in a heartbeat and lose Dish Network all together. But I think I will first wait to see what Apple has in store for us on Wednesday.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

"The streaming content wars are heating up, and thus far it seems to come down to one of two worthy contenders: Venerable DVD-by-mail provider Netflix in one corner, slugging it out with ad-supported, studio-funded rival Hulu Plus, who earlier this month brought their popular service to iOS devices (and more) at long last."

I'm a big fan of Netflix, the DVD service as well as the streaming option, and now that I've received my HuluPlus invite I'll be trying this out as well. Each has different advantages, Netflix having the upper hand when it comes to movies, and HuluPlus for the TV shows. For a total of less than 20 bucks per month for both it's a pretty good package if you watch enough TV to make it worthwhile. I still wish I could get rid of my Dish service, and it is getting closer and closer all the time.

"HBO Go is a service which allows paid HBO subscribers to access HBO original TV shows, movies, and sports on their computers all in HD."

In about six months, you will be able to watch the same service on your iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch, or at least that is the plan from HBO. The big problem is that it is only available via Comcast or Verizon FIOS, so if you are a Dish Network subscriber like me, it appears you are out of luck. Too bad too, as I was looking forward to this.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

"Netflix streaming queue starting to look a little stale? It's working on that, and has signed a deal that brings EPIX's library of movies to Watch Instantly -- just not that instantly."

So plan on being able to view movies, via streaming, from Paramount, Lions Gate and MGM about 90 days after the DVD release now that Netflix has reached an agreement with EPIX. EPIX is a network set up by those studios to bring their movies to the 'Net, and Netflix has finally worked out a deal with them. This is great news for those of you (us) that use the streaming feature of Netflix, and if you are a Netflix user, why wouldn't you?

I have to agree that one part isn't cool, and that is having to either buy a SlingBox or pay $200.00 to $400.00 USD to upgrade your DVR in order to use this service. The upgrade fee is a bit excessive and that is what would prevent me from using this service, especially since there are so many other options out there to access the programs I normally record for viewing later. But the rest of it I could live with, such as the $10.00 USD monthly fee (I already pay that since we have two DVRs). How about you, does this interest you at all or are the costs too much in relation to the benefit?

"Well, would you look at that? The v1.2 update to MobileMe iDisk that Apple pushed out last month has a secret -- er, did have a secret."

And the not so secret secret is that it allows you to play audio via your MobileMe app, from your iDisk, while using another app. While this isn't exactly "iTunes in the cloud" that many sites are talking about, it is a step in the right direction.